


Recollection

by Boldly_going_places



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Kinda of a drabble, being dead and forgetting everything then not, but not romantic - Freeform, i don't know man i don't, it's kinda sad i guess, sarcastic ghost that actually cares a lot, sarcastic guardian that cares but not as much, she tries tho man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 15:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5791261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boldly_going_places/pseuds/Boldly_going_places
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Far off charted territory, in the midst of suburbia, a Guardian and her Ghost were exploring. And remembering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recollection

It was weird. Junie felt like she could remember this place from some odd time ago. But it was more like a dream rather than a memory. Or rather a memory of a dream.

Her Ghost--affectionately named DJ after an incident at a ‘very important meeting’ that Junie really wasn’t supposed to be at--appeared by her shoulder in a flash of blue They hadn’t landed in the Cosmodrome, the most Fallen and Guardian infested place on Earth, but in an East coast American suburb. Junie had insisted. She had an inkling, she had said, but didn’t elaborate (not that she couldn’t. She _definitely_ could).

DJ scanned the area for any signs of dangerous life. “Got an epiphany about why we’re here yet?”

“I already know why we’re here,” she said. She didn’t.

“Okay.”

…

…

…

“Sharing is caring.”

Junie scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s personal.”

“So you don’t know?” DJ asked, partly teasing, partly exasperated. They had come all this way, so far off charted territory, and she didn’t even know why!? “We could die out here, Guardian!”

“Yeah, and I could trip over my robes and fall off the Tower and die, too, but hey,” Junie said (and that definitely didn’t happen before, nope, not at all). She walked over decomposing bicycles, a dead, probably radioactive, large rodent of some sort, through wildflowers that had forced their way up through the concrete of the street and towards one of the houses that looked the same as the rest of the houses in the cul-de-sac, but had a different aura. A familiar aura.

Her Ghost raced after her. “It’s not safe, Guardian. We don’t know what horrors could be lurking in these houses, or in the--the ground!”

Junie walked backwards so she could watch her Ghost, as he hovered and stared down to the ground in what seemed to be horror. It was hard to tell with mono-optic AI units.

“If you’re scared, little guy, you can just float back to sub space, where you’re nice and safe,” Junie teased.

DJ bristled, his little body separating ever so slightly, but he sped up after her, bumping into her shoulder. She smiled and they continued on to the eerily familiar house.

The windows that weren’t broken were nearly opaque with grime; the front porch was in shambles, floorboards completely missing, the steps splintered and rotting. Even from where Junie stood a few yards from it, she could smell the musk, the mold, the rot. It made her eyes water a little. It wasn’t all from the smell though.

“Is there any way you can put a ventilation system on this mask?” She asked, not kidding at all.

“Suffer the consequences,” DJ said.

“Thanks.”

Junie stared at the house from the road--why had she come here? What was this place? Maybe they should just go back to the Tower, doing what all the other Guardians did. What if the house collapsed on both of them? She shook her head. That was stupid. She was just making excuses.

“C’mon,” she said, and strode up to the porch, watching her step on the rotting boards, reached the door, turned the doorknob, but it wouldn’t open. “It’s stuck.”

“Kick it in,” DJ said. “You’ve got it in you.”

“No, I’m not gonna--Nah.” It felt wrong to damage the house. Not damage it. Hurt it. “I’ll just find a different way in.”

“Think you might disturb the residents?” DJ asked.

Junie ignored him, and crawled in through one of the broken windows.

The minute she was inside, she knew. The kitchen was familiar. The stove was the ugliest green color, but it worked. At least it did, at some point. A point that Junie could remember.

“Have you found what you’re looking for yet? Can we go?” Her ghost asked, floating after her, but she wasn’t listening.

Junie took off one of her gloves and ran her hand along the dusty counter: finished maple wood. There were knots that made patterns, some that she remembers thinking looked like aliens when she was little--she was way off on that one. She hadn’t seen any green, oval headed aliens with eyes that were too big...yet. Junie smiled. This was nice. This was familiar. It was quieter, though. Quieter than what?

“Guardian?”

Quieter than a family.

The gun on Junie’s back felt too heavy. Too sinister. She dropped it. Dropped her cloaks and helmet onto the faux tile floor that was littered with broken glass, dirt, rodent droppings, and Traveler knew what else. She wasn’t paying attention to the ground though. In her simple, black under armor, she walked around the kitchen in a trance, took note of the peeling wallpaper with pastries over it. Pastries. They didn’t have pastries back at the Tower, but she knew they tasted like soft sugar and bread so perfectly done it melted in her mouth.

“Junie? Are you okay?” DJ whizzed to Junie’s side, transmatting her garments and weapon off the ground.

“It’s weird. Y’know, I had a dream about this place. I was sitting right there,” she pointed to the wrap around counter. “And my...my sister? Was sitting next to me. We were eating pancakes with maple syrup--the real stuff. My mom was cooking, and we were _laughing_. Being a family. I don’t know. All I remember is little stuff.”

“This is your home?” Her ghost flew around the small kitchen, scanning things, looking through things, bumping things. Exploring.

Junie nodded. She wasn’t crying, exactly. Just having a moment. “How could I forget home? I lived here until I died. I lived here for nineteen years, DJ. I’ve been resurrected for two. And until last week...I had no idea. I couldn’t even remember I had a mom or a sister. I mean, how fucked up is that? How do you forget something like that?” Okay. Now she was crying. She crossed her arms on the counter and buried her head in them. Her pale skin had gone red and blotchy, and she couldn’t look around anymore. Her home was decrepit. Dead.

She heard the soft hum of DJ; he was floating around her, scanning her, seeing if he could help. Sadness was one of the Darknesses that people didn’t take seriously enough, DJ thought. He didn’t like seeing anybody sad, especially his guardian, the person who was supposed to protect Light, exude Light.

“Well...uh, maybe…You could--we could fix your home up? I mean, if you can figure out how to fix an old, junky hover car, a stove can’t be that hard, right?” DJ said. “And carpentry can’t be hard! Just take a piece of wood and a nail and a hammer and bang it together.”

Junie looked up at her companion, smiling through her tears. “Nah...I just...I needed to see it. I never really got to say goodbye. I’m just gonna...see the rest.”

DJ went quiet and his panels went down just a fraction. He knew how she died. They didn’t talk about it: an intoxicated idiot on a dark road.

“Okay,” The Ghost said, and he knew not to follow.

Junie wandered through the house, running her hand along the wall, painted vibrant purple at one point but had faded to a soft lilac. There were two bedrooms, she remembered; one for her and her sister--her sister Patrice--and one for her mom. There was living room that had the TV and the couch in it, and a bathroom that the three of them shared. That was her home.

She walked into the living room. The furniture was there, unmoved by banks or new residents, or anybody else. Not even her mom had redecorated. The temptation to sit on the couch was thwarted by a mouse running out from under the couch, and a small, raggedy cat following it. A cat...well, kind of a cat. It was a little different, more scraggly, deformed, hair matted, ears bitten. She wondered if she had a cat at some point, but she couldn’t _remember_.

Junie wandered into her mom’s room. It was cozy. Used to be cozy. But just like the rest of the house, it was sagging. Old. What had she thought before? Oh yeah. Dead. The springs of a long gone mattress were pressed up against the farthest wall, next to the windows. A toppled over nightstand laid beside it. There was a sunken in closet. It was familiar, but it wasn’t like it used to be.

The bathroom was gross. The toilet had deteriorated, and grew its own biome. I wonder if DJ would take a sample? she thought, only partly joking. The shower was pretty much in the same state. If she didn’t die from a Fallen’s fire, the intake of harmful organic toxins would surely be her Achilles’ Heel. Junie snorted.

The only room left was her room. Her sister’s room. Junie and Patrice’s room. Patrice and Junie’s room. She couldn’t remember how people used to say their names. She couldn’t remember what her sister looked like or laughed like or talked like. She couldn't remember what her mom looked like or laughed like or talked like. The two women who loved her, who were her family--a far as she knew, her only family.

Junie stood outside her room. Would she remember something? Junie walked through the threshold, beholding the sight of decomposing mattresses on opposite parts of the room. The left was hers. She thought. The room was symmetrical. There were two windows, two beds, two nightstands, one bureau in the middle. Junie couldn’t remember anything--not hanging up posters, or having a fight with her sister or dancing to some bad pre-Golden Age music. Not the smallest thing. She remembered more looking at the kitchen than this room. Her own room couldn’t give her any memories. Tears pricked at her eyes like little thorns. A goddamn _stove_ could give her more memories than her own room.

Junie clenched her fist and took a shaky breath in. She didn’t know why it was important, but it was the most important thing in that moment.

“Fine!” She yelled, throwing her hands up. “Fine! I’m just another goddamn Guardian, huh, right? We’re just soldiers, right? To do what you want? I can’t have my goddamn memories, though, can I!? I can’t remember what was before you came, can I? Because it might be better, right!?”

And as if the Traveler was listening, Junie saw a small little something out of the corner of her eye. Just scratches on the wall that made words. ‘Patrice: 5’8” Junie: 5’4”’. Junie stared at it, mouth cracked open, reaching up, tracing the letters and numbers inscripted in the wood. She remembered doing this, the night before she died. Both of them died, though. Junie forgot that part. Then why hadn’t her sister been resurrected with her? Was the world that cruel? 

DJ flew into the room, stopping Junie from bursting into disgusting sobs. “Guardian! We need to go, a Fallen skiff landed by the house. We need to leave, now!”

“Hold on--”

“No! We can come back later.”

“I just found--”

“Junie, we can’t stay. Both of us will die.” At least he sounded sympathetic. 

“Get a scan of this first,” Junie pointed to the measurements on the wall, her hand shaking.

“Fine," DJ floated over to the wall, scanned the measurements. "Okay let’s go.”

DJ went back into Junie’s subspace, and she ran outside, through a backdoor that she had conveniently remembered the minute she saw how close the Fallen were to the house.

DJ transmatted both of them to her ship, but not before Junie saw the Fallen ransacking her house. Because, after all, after you say goodbye to something, it's not really yours anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, and all that. i really wish there were more destiny fics, but hey, it is first person shooter game (with a world that has so much potential, but the creators haven't lived up to all that world-building potential yet, at least for me, so i'm going to fulfill my dreams myself, and hopefully other people will, too).


End file.
